Elder Stephen Chipman is currently serving in the Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

My new area of Tolosa

It’s been another great but super hot day in Tolosa, Argentina.

The hottest part of summer is still to come, but summer
doesn’t seem too afraid to come a little early. The heat is really coming on.
It’s 34 degrees in Celsius, I don’t know what that is in Fahrenheit, but I
kinda get the picture. Let’s just say we
finish the day sticky with sweat and the smell of sun screen.

It sounds like a very eventful week even though CrossCountryState makes things tense.
I think that Allie finishing 13th is very good! She’s only a freshman; she’ll
be ok, even if she is disappointed now. Seems like she has a great future as a
runner and should be happy about her performance! The fact that the boy’s team
won state again threw me for a whirl. I was not expecting that, and I looked at
the picture of the team, and I can’t even recognize the kids. That’s amazing
and a three-peat for them. I guess Coach Dalby knows what he is doing. I also
have a feeling that the girls team will be up there soon as Maddie, Allie, and
Becca gain more experience.

As far as my companion goes, his name is Elder Johnstun
from a small town in Oregon.
His family lives on a farm and he is pretty quiet, but we get along very well.
He’s a super hard worker and its fun to be with him because I know that he
wants exactly what I want and that is to work till we drop!

We had a great week this week as far as missionary work. We
have found a lot of people to teach and we are working toward baptism with a
few of them. The only difficulty is that our church building is not in our
area. We share the chapel with the La Plata 1 Ward, so getting people to come
to church is a little more difficult. We will just have to keep working with
them until they come on a Sunday. The
area is growing and we keep talking to a bunch of people in the streets and we
are doing our best to find more people. With some new investigators, we were
talking about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and they mentioned that they
have never heard of it before, and they never even thought that an apostasy was
possible. It reminded me of the scripture that says many don’t know truth
because they just don’t know where to find it! It’s a blessing to be able to
see that.

As far as being district
leader goes, I’m adjusting to my new responsibilities and I find it to be
mostly fun! Planning for district meetings is something that I have to get used
too. Plus, I use my letter writing time to take care of administrative things
so that makes me short on time. Sometimes it is hard for me because a lot of
missionaries have very difficult questions, and I have to be the voice of the
president in those matters. For the most part, I’m adjusting nicely to my new
assignment and area.

I got your email about my low bank account
mom. I will let you know next time when it’s that low. I just don’t think about
it because $8 is about $80 Pesos so I figured that I still had a lot of money,
but when you say $8, that put it more into perspective! So thanks for refilling
it, and for the extra tid bit for my birthday.
It was very nice of you! I’ll use it wisely :)

As for me, I am doing very well. Because I was transferred
just a few days before my birthday, I tried to keep it a secret, because I
didn’t want anyone to feel obligated to throw a party, and I wanted to work. So
to finish the day we bought a kilo of Argentine Ice Cream, (which is super
good-- by the way) and we just finished it off this afternoon. It was very
good, so thank you for the extra money to do that!

Funny story: The other day, me and the other office
Elder’s were getting ready for bed and one of them asked, "How many times
has your bishop written you since you started the mission?" They all
responded a few times or maybe once, but they were all really surprised when I
told them that I receive an email from my bishop every week! They weren’t as
impressed when they learned that my bishop is my dad, but hey!

I do miss you guys and look forward to the
day when I can see you again, but I am grateful that I am here right now. I see
so many miracles every day. Like on Saturday night after I wrote you guys and
before my transfer, we went to a lesson with a man we found in the street. We
invited him to church, and on Sunday he came! He said he loved every second of
it! Also, Rodrigo´s Mom came to church and loved it, Rodrigo was ordained the
Aaronic Priesthood, and another recent convert got a temple recommend. All in one day! What a blessing it is to
serve and receive at the same time!

Tolosa is kinda like a suburb of La Plata. It is just outside the main
downtown city and doesn’t have a lot of big buildings, but it does have a
Wal-Mart! I know that doesn’t sound too cool, but it is one of the 3 Wal-Marts
in the mission, so I feel pretty lucky! The only difference is that Wal-Mart’s
here are like cities. Super Big! They have movie theaters and food courts
inside.

Anyway, I’m running out of time, but I hope that you have a
more relaxed week and enjoy Halloween. Elder Johnstun and I are thinking of
things to do for Friday, but lets be honest, we’ll probably just buy some
food of some kind and say happy Halloween! Ha-ha, that’s the missionary holiday
for ya!